Cherry Stem Read online

  “What exactly were you wearing, that our dear Alex thought you were a…working girl?” He was so not dropping the subject. Argh!

  I’d make him drop it. “How’s Sheena doing? Are you two getting along?” If my grin was any wider, it was entirely possible that my face would split in half and each part would roll off my skull.

  Constantine took a sip of his drink and grimaced. “To be perfectly honest, Ms. Herring is a pain. She asks questions about everything, flirts with me shamelessly, demands constant attention, and is loud. Other than that, she is fine and sends her regards. She is not why I’m here, however.”

  “She’s not?”

  He shook his head. “Ádísa is.”

  I didn’t like the sound of that. Had she sent him?

  Alex tensed beside me. He leaned forward, apparently interested in whatever Constantine had to say next. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw the top of the stake jut out of his pocket. I moved my hand from Alex’s leg to his shoulder, then ran it down his back, all the way to his waistband. I didn’t think we had much of a chance if Alex was proven right as to Constantine’s loyalties, but if it came to that, we’d go down fighting.

  “What about her?” Okay, so I couldn’t have possibly said her any more disdainfully.

  “She and another of the current council members are the ones who organized your turning.” I couldn’t believe his calm.

  I curled my fingers around the stake but not so I could free it from its denim sheath. Holding on to it was somehow like holding on to reality itself. Hearing my suspicions confirmed had shocked me more than having Santa or a village full of Smurfs introduced to me could have.

  “How long have you known?” It was of immense significance for me to find out.

  “I found out after you and I broke up, but she’d been the one who insisted I become your mentor.” He cradled his glass with both hands, staring at the amber liquid as though it held the answer to some invaluable mystery.

  If he didn’t look at me soon, I’d stand up and slap him. “Did she insist you fuck me too? Say you love me?” By that time, I’d all but forgotten about the man beside me. His warm presence had become nothing more than a part of the surroundings. All I could see, feel, taste was betrayal. First Sheena, now Constantine. How much of my life before and after my turning had been a lie? The question swirled in my head, drowning out another one trying to form there.

  Constantine looked to my right, and I followed his gaze to Alex’s face. He looked grim but showed no intention of leaving my side or changing the route of the conversation. I felt grateful for his understanding and, at the same time, wanted to yell at him for having no insecurities when I was teeming with them. I readjusted my grip on the stake, but Alex reached behind him and covered my hand with his.

  The stake wasn’t my connection to reality; he was.

  “She wanted me to make you fall for me. She hadn’t planned on the opposite happening,” Constantine finally said. There was no doubt in my mind that he hadn’t missed any of the interaction between me and Alex. Both Constantine and I knew who the better man in the room was. “That was why she did her best to seduce me back to her. Once you and I were over, she promised me power to keep me with her, but when she told me what she’d done… I really did and do love you, Cherry. I’d do anything for you, including sit back and let you be happy with a human.” He downed the rest of his scotch in one big gulp.

  I waited for a comment from Alex, but none came. Too numb to keep holding on to my beer, I left it on the table, not bothering with a coaster. I didn’t know how to react. My eyes burned with the sting of tears, and there was an itch in my throat that I knew would lead to hysterical laughter if I let it out. My ex was giving me his blessing and confessing his love for me in front of my current love interest. Who, by the way, was taking it all in stride and letting us talk things out. Civilized, huh?

  I couldn’t let Constantine’s declarations of love get to me. “When she told you what she’d done—what?” His eyes were a stormy blue when he raised them to mine, earnest and tormented, but I pressed on, keeping my tone cool, detached. “You were with her again after the meeting with the council and last night.” My jealousy wasn’t the issue; I just wanted him to know I wasn’t buying what he was selling.

  I saw him grasping for words before he said, “I was with her because I had to.”

  I arched an eyebrow. “Am I supposed to feel sorry for you? Poor thing. It must have been horrible fucking her, again and again.” I was disgusted. How could he be sitting there, in front of me, and expecting me to listen to that?

  “That’s not how it was.”

  His tearing up did nothing to melt the ice in my voice. “Who else from the council is in on it?”

  “I don’t know who. The only reason I know someone is, is because Ádísa told me so.” He held up a hand to shush my protest. “Let me tell you things as they happened, all right? Please hear me out?” At my nod, he went on. “When she bragged to me about how she’d attained her position in the council by having you turned, I didn’t hold back. I made my displeasure with her rather obvious, to say the least, and even went as far as threatening that I would tell the council what she’d done.

  “She laughed and told me to go ahead, that it would be my word against that of two council members.” He addressed Alex now, maybe seeking male camaraderie. “That would help neither me nor Cherry, so I decided to try honey where vinegar had failed, find out more so I could have a case against her. I approached her again, made a public apology, and finally got back into her good graces, managing to pass our fight off as a lovers’ spat. I told her that what had enraged me the most had been her lack of confidence in me.” After a pause, he locked gazes with me once more. “I’m not proud for sleeping with her when you and I were together, but I swear to you, the only reason I ever touched her again was so I could bring her down.”

  “She bought the lovestruck puppy act.” His charm was indisputable, and Ádísa’s ego wouldn’t have let her doubt his adoration of her.

  He nodded. “She still doesn’t tell me about what she does, but she’s not very careful about hiding it, either. She thinks I’m oblivious. What I’ve managed to find out is that Willoughby is her childe too. And I know you’re right about him turning young women, although I still don’t know why. I followed him once, after he visited her, and saw him take a woman to a house on the other side of town from Ádísa’s. I didn’t see the woman leave while I was there, and I stayed until just before sunrise. I went back the following day, but the place was deserted. I’ve only seen him twice since, but he keeps disappearing on me.”

  Willoughby’s threat to Mark came back to me. “Tell Cherry to get her boyfriend off my case.” Could he have meant Constantine? But we’d broken up years ago. I suddenly wanted to slap my forehead. Years ago? Willoughby was probably old old, both “olds” measured in centuries. To him four years were like a week was to me.

  I squeezed Alex’s hand. “He didn’t mean you. Willoughby didn’t mean you. He knew Constantine was after him all along. That was why he was surprised to see you at Dark Sun.” The implications of what I was saying hit me full force, and I turned to Constantine. “He knows you’re after him.”

  “It doesn’t matter anymore,” he said. “Last night I overheard that there are some fledglings and a human in Ádísa’s basement.”

  Alex and I jumped up as one. The human had to be Dotty, and the sooner we got to the fledglings, the less the influence Ádísa and her bastard would have on them. Without the right sponsor, the girls could become remorseless killers. “Why didn’t you start with this little bit of info?” I asked with a snarl as Alex demanded instructions to the bitch’s abode.

  Constantine’s eyes blazed at me, brilliantly blue. “If you’d answered your telephone, I’d have told you much sooner. And my timing doesn’t exactly matter. We cannot go there for at least one more hour. Ádísa wanted to be alone. She’s even given her staff the night off because of that.
She’s told me, however, that she’s going out to feed at nine. I say nine thirty is our best bet for getting in and out of there with as little trouble as possible.”

  I didn’t want little trouble. I wanted big trouble, and I wanted to be the one causing it. The rational part of me knew he was right. I was dying to know what Ádísa needed her privacy for, but the fewer vampires we had to fight, the better our chances of survival. We couldn’t exactly spy on an ancient vampire and expect not to be noticed.

  “We leave here at nine,” I said. “I need to go by my place first.” Once the girls and Dotty were free, we could go back and settle things with Ádísa once and for all. With any luck, the three of us might beat her, but I needed sturdier shoes if I was even going to try to kick her ass.

  “We’re going in tonight because he said so?” Alex asked me the question in a conversational tone, indicating Constantine with the hand holding his beer. “He can give me the address, and I can go get Dotty during the day, when it’s safe. Assuming she’s the human he heard is allegedly there.” He looked at Constantine. “No offense, man, but I trust you about as far as I can throw you.”

  Constantine grinned. “If I said the same, it would be a great compliment.”

  I scoffed. “Shut up, Constantine. You’re strong. We get it. Alex, Ádísa is not exactly defenseless during the day. Even if she doesn’t have humans protecting her, which I bet she does, she wouldn’t have gotten this old if she were stupid—” Constantine interjected a confirmation at that point, and I continued. “She’ll be just as lethal as always below ground level, which is where the girls are. Plus you can’t drag the new vamps out in the middle of the day, and we have to save them from her clutches too.” Alex seemed completely unconcerned with that, which, to be honest, bummed me out. I didn’t want him to consider vampires expendable. Those girls had been significant to him before their turning; they ought to be significant afterward too.

  He did that nibble-worthy clenched-jaw thing. “Fine. Then let’s get backup. Aren’t there any other vampires you can trust?” That question put him back on my nice-boys list.

  The council, or whoever of them wasn’t working with Ádísa, should have been the obvious answer, but who was beyond suspicion? “We could try Johnny Boy,” I said, looking to Constantine for confirmation.

  He shook his head. “We don’t know which of them is on her side.”

  “One of the council members?” Alex asked, eyes wide. “Haven’t we already covered that they’re not the good guys you thought they were? Think outside the box, Cherry. You’ve been around for six years. Haven’t you made any vampire friends?”

  It sounded too much like an accusation for my liking. “Six years aren’t exactly an eternity, and we’re not the friendly kind. Also, I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but my taste in companions has been sort of poor!”

  Alex shrugged one shoulder in what looked like agreement, and Constantine scratched his chin with his middle finger. If I didn’t know he’d never stoop as low as that, I’d think he was flipping me the bird.

  “You’ve been around forever,” I said to my ex. “What about your friends?”

  He stretched and graced me with a bored gaze. “I don’t do friendships. I do politics.” I ignored the sharp pain that sent through my side. He probably didn’t do relationships either, or feelings, despite his statements earlier. Not that I cared. Whatever we’d had was in the past.

  Alex raised both arms. “Going in with his friends wouldn’t make me feel any safer. We need people we know are on our side.”

  Right that moment, it felt like nobody was on my side. “There aren’t any.” I thought of the police. “None we can risk, anyway. We are all we’ve got. Deal with it.” That came out a lot harsher than he deserved, but there was no way for me to take it back. I needed some air. I was fully aware of how stupid that was; I didn’t need to breathe, but I needed air. And why were the men being so civilized? Shouldn’t they be a lot growlier with each other?

  “I still say if we go tonight, we’re walking into a trap.” Alex hadn’t raised his voice, but he didn’t sound like what he was saying was up for debate either. He lifted his beer to his lips and gulped half of it down before setting it aside. To me it seemed he’d put an end to the subject.

  I needed to be out of there, away from the two of them, from the responsibility knowledge brought in its wake, and from the doubt that was eating at my insides. Alex could be right, despite how unlikely I considered that to be, and if he was, I was endangering much more than myself by stubbornly choosing to believe Constantine. But if Constantine was telling the truth…

  I worried my lower lip with my teeth, fully aware Alex wasn’t going to like what he was about to hear next. “I have to go. I am going. Can’t risk Ádísa moving them, for whatever reason.” My body had gravitated toward Constantine’s, which I only realized when I felt his fingers caress my inner wrist.

  I pulled my hand away and rubbed the skin where he’d touched it, as if he’d burned me. The touch had felt too familiar, too comfortable for my liking. Everything about his demeanor was far too comfortable for my liking. He had waltzed in there like he owned the place and divulged information that had turned my world upside down. Slowly, with measured steps, I positioned myself so the three of us formed a triangle of equal sides. I needed the distance from both of them if I was to take the best course of action without letting personal feelings influence me.

  Alex, recognizing my confusion for what it was, tried to reason with me once more. “Okay, try to see things from where I’m standing, please. My vamp girlfriend’s”—there was that word again; I smiled despite myself—“ex appears at my place to tell her he loves her, has always loved her, but he was planted in her…life from the start by the woman who ordered her turning, in order for that woman to gain power.”

  I was forgetting something. What was it?

  “He’s still said evil woman’s lover, knowing she’s responsible for the turning of more young women, but he’s somehow not involved in the whole mess and wants nothing but to bring the bad woman and her accomplices down. At his own risk. Only it has to happen tonight. How believable is that shit?”

  Constantine hadn’t stopped nodding during Alex’s recap and jumped in before I could answer. “Not at all, and I more than understand your skepticism. I have no assurances to offer you, Alex. You may believe me or you may choose not to. The fact is, I’ve told you the truth.” Folding his hands on his lap, he perused each of us in turn.

  “And if he hasn’t and I don’t come back, you’re going to torch his place first thing in the morning,” I said, without a trace of humor.

  Constantine let out an indignant protest and was ignored by both of us.

  Alex looked at me, one eyebrow arched.

  “You’re not coming with. You’re staying behind. If something happens, one of us has to be here to do something about it all.” I couldn’t meet his eyes. However much sense my arguments made, I knew Alex would end up getting pissed at me. He’d think I was standing in the way of his doing his job.

  To my surprise, Constantine did nothing to make that awkward moment any worse than it already was. Instead he put our discarded glasses back on the tray and headed in the general direction of the kitchen without a word. He would undoubtedly be able to hear us from there too, but his attempt at discretion was unexpectedly gallant.

  Alex remained silent until we heard the kitchen door closing. Then he said, “I’m not letting you go alone.”

  I opened my mouth to argue his choice of words—it wasn’t up to him to let me do anything.

  “It’s not a case of ‘me man, you woman,’ and it’s not about jealousy. Not after last night. This is about you and me being in this together, and I’m coming whether you like it or not.” He frowned and ran one hand through his hair. “Hell, I’m coming even though I don’t like it!”

  “You don’t understand. Any self-respecting vampire can sniff a human out. A council member would have y
ou drained in a second if you so much as stepped a foot on their front porch.” Maybe I was exaggerating, but they’d at least have his memory wiped, if they felt charitable. Plus Alex wouldn’t really be of much assistance if the proverbial crap did hit the metaphorical fan, not when I was so much stronger than he was. There was no way of telling him so without wounding his ego, and I didn’t want us to part on such terms. Not when I couldn’t be sure I’d see him again. “We need someone to—”

  “Tell the world our story?” He let out a bitter chuckle. “Cherry, if they take you down, I’m next anyway. Not like I can ask for reinforcements. Nobody would believe me if I started blaming vampires for the disappearances. And I’d hate myself if something happened to you and I wasn’t there. I know you’re stronger and so is that guy pretending not to listen in on our conversation, but I’m fast and a sharp shooter. Even if bullets don’t kill vampires, they can hurt them.”

  “Alex—”

  “You don’t even know we’ll only be up against vamps, anyway. For all we know, she lied about sending her staff off, or Constantine did. I can help. You can take me with you or let me drive around all night searching for a house spooky enough to belong to an ancient vampire, but I’m not sitting on my ass and letting you do the fighting without me.”

  He cupped my cheeks with both palms, and I let him raise my face to his. His features looked blurry through the tears fringing my eyelashes. Blinking the tears away didn’t help clear my vision as he came closer until our noses finally touched. “Nod if we’re clear on that.”

  I nodded and smiled against his lips as they closed over mine. I swear I’ve tried a million times to think of what I might possibly have done to deserve such a guy in my unlife and have, thus far, come up with nothing.

  Constantine reappeared a few minutes later, more serious than ever. “All three of us are going, then?”

  “Maybe your—Mr. Marsden should drive there? We don’t know what shape the fledglings and human will be in.”

  Alex nodded and jotted down the address Constantine gave him.